Letter+of+Introduction+(Camera)

Dear Reader,  Before navigating the website I have composed, I kindly ask that you take a few moments to read this introduction, which documents my growth throughout the semester. At the onset of the semester, I was unsure what to expect from this class. Despite my love of the English language and Bachelor of Arts degree in English, I knew very little about literacy and language development. In my naïve mind, I had assumed my career would simply entail me teaching literature to students who are as equally as passionate about reading as I am. My undergraduate work never forced me to reflect on the correlation between language and culture. I had never even stopped to consider the dilemmas that would arise when a student’s home discourse, which they spend their entire life relying on to communicate within their communities, is not the language sanctioned in our American school system. I came into this class excited to learn new concepts and ideas but nervous about my lack of prior knowledge.  I began this semester with a Point of Tension: Self Study assignment. This assignment helped me to reflect upon my own literacy development. I believe it was important for me to recognize my own journey before I could begin to comprehend a student’s struggle with literacy in the Linguistic Dimensions Case Study. I am proud to say that I have come a long way since the onset of this course. With my understanding of culture and its relation to language came a more practical and useful way to teach language and grammar to all students, despite what their primary discourse may be.   On the first day of this course, I was given a survey entitled “Beliefs Regarding Language and Grammar”. On the last day of class, I was given the survey a second time and had the opportunity to compare my responses. It is obvious that this course caused me to learn and grow tremendously throughout the semester. On the initial inventory, I had not been aware that I speak differently at home, than I do in the classroom. I was also under the notion that Standard language is the only language acceptable in school. I now know that as teachers we need to provide all students with the tools they need to speak and write in Standard English. On the second inventory, I wrote a great deal about the importance of code switching, a term I had not even heard of prior to this class. On both inventories I had wrote about the importance of grammar being an essential component in all English Language Arts classrooms. However, in the second inventory I included more explicit details on how I would teach grammar in my own English Language Arts classroom. I believe that grammar should constantly be taught in context. In addition, teachers should use traditional grammar to help rectify their patterns of error. I can now say I have a more profound understanding of the English language and how it should be used in the classroom.  This website has been comprised of three essential questions. 1. How does student’s language and development affect their learning? 2. How are social identity, power, and academic literacy related? 3. How can we bridge the gap between home and school literacies? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Although these questions are all interrelated, I believe that what I have learned by analyzing questions one and two, has contributed to the ideas I present as the answer to question 3. It is only when a teacher truly understands how student’s language and development affect their learning and how social identity, power, and academic literacy are related that they will be able to bridge the gap between home and school literacies. I believe all of the work and reading assigned in this course have contributed to my knowledge of the essential questions. In addition to organizing the artifacts, I have collected throughout this course by the essential question they most relate to, I have also included all artifacts in my table of contents to make the website easier to navigate. My inclusion of all artifacts in the table of contents also represents how all of the artifacts I have collected collaboratively influenced my answers to each question, to some degree. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Although I believe that I have a much more thorough understanding of the systemic nature of language and both the connections and tensions between oral and written language, since this class began, I acknowledge that I have much more room to grow. My goals as an educator, in specific regards to literacy and the English language, are to continue to study literacy development of all students in my class. I intend to continually consider the skills and needs of linguistically diverse students and practice different philosophies related to grammar and literacy instruction until I find one that I feel best benefits every member of the class. Thank you for taking the time to view my synthesis of learning. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Kind Regards, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Angela M. Camera